Gojek Introduces Surge Pricing To Beta App Despite Saying They Won’t Previously

If you’ve been keeping up with the previous news about Gojek, you’re probably wondering why.

Why flip prata so much?!

But.

If you’re wondering what’s wrong with Gojek introducing surge pricing, then you’ll need to go back for a bit.

Gojek: We will not be bringing in dynamic pricing at the start

Just last week, Gojek broke their silence on what they’re bringing to the table for Singaporeans.

And one of the things they’ve specifically mentioned is the lack of dynamic pricing, at least during the start of their operations.

What’s Dynamic Pricing?

It’s basically surge pricing to regulate supply and demand.

So when there are lesser cars around, or more demand than cars available, the prices will be adjusted higher to help balance supply and demand.

Yeah, that dreaded surge.

Just when you thought you’ll not face it during the first hour of a new year, when surges are the highest.

Dynamic Pricing to regulate supply and demand

In a 180-degree change from their previous statement, they’ve sent emails out to Gojek users informing them about the implementation of dynamic pricing.

But they promise that they’ll keep prices competitive for riders despite “slightly higher” prices.

(Pretty sure it’s not just slightly at 1 January 2019, 12:30 a.m.)

How?

“Our strategy for launch is to make sure we are constantly acquiring customers through the right mechanisms… and that could be through promo codes (and) vouchers.”

Keywords here, promo codes and vouchers.

They’re Also Looking To Get More Drivers (Supply) So They’ll Have More Cars 

It’s not just about getting enough customers to order rides from them. It’s also about getting enough drivers to drive for them.

Besides trying to enter partnerships to reduce rental and fuel costs for drivers, they’re also looking at providing incentives to drivers through a points system.

Drivers who accumulate 30 points will be given a $310 daily incentive, and those who hit higher targets will get weekly earning top-ups as well.

Provided they maintain an 85 per cent performance rating, that is.

Grab vs Gojek: Which is Cheaper?

Now, we got curious.

Gojek said they’re going to offer riders a valuable alternative to Grab and said they’ll be playing the game at the “lowest possible” price.

Does that mean that they’re going to be cheaper than Grab?

So we went to Grab’s website to find out which one is cheaper.

Here’s the fare calculation for Gojek.

They start at $2.70 and has a $0.65 per kilometre rate.

Grab, on the other hand, starts at $2.50 and has a $0.50 per kilometre rate. However, they have an additional $0.16 per minute rate as well.

So it all depends on the situation.

If you’re stuck in a jam for half an hour and travelled 4 kilometres:

Grab = $2.50 + ($0.50 * 4) + ($0.16 * 30) = $9.30.

Gojek = $2.70 + $2.60 = $5.30

However, if there’s no jam and you reach your destination in 5 minutes:

Grab = $2.50 + ($0.50 * 4) + ($0.16 * 5) = $5.30

Gojek = $2.70 + $2.60 = $5.30

Conclusion? It’s about the time you need to travel between point A and B. If there’s a jam, it’ll be cheaper to travel on Gojek.

But, of course, depending on the promo codes and vouchers rolled out by Gojek, the situation could change very quickly.

Similar to Grab, drivers on Gojek have to manually include the ERP charges on the app.

But nevermind, we as passengers won’t care about that since we’ve often hoped they’ll forget to include it #justsaying

So for those of you who’s thinking of GoJek-ing his new year, sorry no sorry: you’ll still have to pay more.